In all fairness, everything about how the memory management works in CLR is an implementation detail, although it doesn't stop interviewers from asking these questions. :)
Value types are specified to be immutable, which the compilers has to guarantee.
You're thinking about ref readonly and in specifically, in which case yes, a defensive copy has to be made because the compiler cannot be sure that the object is not mutated.
"In all fairness, everything about how the memory management works in CLR is an implementation detail, although it doesn't stop interviewers from asking these questions. :)"
I know people who ask these questions in the hope of getting push back, but I'll agree - lots of questionable interview questions out there :)
Also yes you're right, the copy only happens if you use in or access a property of a readonly field that's a struct.
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In all fairness, everything about how the memory management works in CLR is an implementation detail, although it doesn't stop interviewers from asking these questions. :)
You're thinking about
ref readonlyandinspecifically, in which case yes, a defensive copy has to be made because the compiler cannot be sure that the object is not mutated."In all fairness, everything about how the memory management works in CLR is an implementation detail, although it doesn't stop interviewers from asking these questions. :)"
I know people who ask these questions in the hope of getting push back, but I'll agree - lots of questionable interview questions out there :)
Also yes you're right, the copy only happens if you use
inor access a property of a readonly field that's a struct.